We Can Make This Easy Or We Can Make This Hard…Guess We’ll Make It Harder

An article by Dave Sheingold in today’s Record highlights a trend regarding real estate tax appeals in New Jersey which we have seen develop in recent years, as the real estate market continues to be in flux and droves of property owners have tried to reduce expenses by filing property tax appeals. The message from the towns is simple — don’t expect the road a reduced property tax assessment to be a simple or short one.

As Sheingold’s article mentions, New Jersey towns and municipal tax assessors are resisting the increasing volume of tax appeals by declaring more and more sales of property at “rock bottom” prices as being “non-usable” sales which cannot be considered as comparable sales evidence in prosecuting a tax appeal. In other words, even if your neighbor’s home sold for a low price, don’t expect that you will be able to easily rely upon that sale as a comparable sale in pursuing a tax appeal to lower your assessment, and beware of conditions which may cause the municipal authorities to claim that the sale does not represent an “arm’s length” transaction under normal market conditions.

No Matter Where You Live ...
NJ.com See which N.J. counties have the highest and lowest property taxes NJ.com TRENTON — Three New Jersey counties saw average property tax bills top $10,000

South Brunswick Considers...
From Star-Ledger: Report: South Brunswick considers revaluation after flood of tax appeals The Star-Ledger – NJ.com SOUTH BRUNSWICK – Tax appeals from property and business

Tax Appeals In Atlantic C...
As property values continue to fall and tax rates soar, homeowners are filing assessment appeals in record numbers -an increase of over 33% from 2010. The county